By Scott Gilfoid: Normally when fighters come off of a long layoff like the one that Ricky Hatton (46-2, 32 KO’s) has had they tend to want to have a number of tune-up fights in order to get the rust off and to find out where they’re at, but not Hatton. He’s not fought in over 3 years and will be taking on former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) on November 24th this month in Manchester.

It just looks like a really risky move on Hatton’s part. Does he have a secret wish to get knocked out cold again or is this just a way to help cushion the blow for if he fails to shine. Looking at from one angle, Hatton could be choosing someone a lot better than he should be fighting because it won’t look nearly so bad if he gets spanked by Senchenko then it would be if Hatton picked out a nice 3rd tier fighter and got knocked out cold.

You can kind of see a kind of crazy logic behind Hatton facing someone like Senchenko because of the built in excuse Hatton would have. On the outside it looks like a daring move but if you look at if from the excuse angle, then it’s not such a bold thing. But as far as it being a wise thing, it’s bad idea and I can’t think of any famous trainer that would advise Hatton to make this move.

Can you imagine someone like Emanuel Steward telling Hatton to fight Senchenko in his first fight back after a 3 1/2 year layoff? No way. Steward would likely advise against such a match-up, because it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s like driving car over a cliff. Yeah, there’s chance things will work out but the odds aren’t good at all.

About his past fight against Luis Collazo, Hatton said to the Liverpoolecho.co.uk “Normally when you’re moving up in weight you have a couple of fights first. Not me. Straight in for a world title fight.”

Hatton was staggered in that fight by Collazo in the 12th round, and it wasn’t a brilliant move to move up to the welterweight division without testing the waters first. It worked out for Hatton, but that was only because he chose Collazo and and not someone like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao for his first fight.